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Topic: 4 1/2 month old Cheddar ! (Read 1749 times)

Well , I haven't been at the cheese making thing too long now , and was getting a little anxious to try something older , my blues and bries have all been very good at about six weeks , but I've been dying to try something older.

So I opened the very first cheese that I ever made , a Farmhouse Cheddar using the recipe from Ricki Carrolls book:

I made four of these in a few days , two had problems with mold under the wax , so I dewaxed and re waxed them , one was so bad I eventually trashed it , the other I cut off a piece and it was terrible at 3 months , very crumbly and acidic , I trashed it too.

This one the wax seemed to adhere very well and no real problem with mold , so I thought at 4 1/4 months , it should be fairly edible , as the Farmhouse Cheddars are supposed to mature faster tha the traditional Cheddar , according to Ricki.

The wax came off very easily , the texture was that of probably any good store bought Cheddar I have tried , the aroma was distinctly Cheddar , the curds broke apart like any good aged cheddar and the flavour is second to none , as good and better than most of the store bought aged cheddars we usually buy.

I melted some on a bowl of chili , it melted great , we ate half of the wheel with bread , and again great.

I still have one more wheel of Farmhouse Cheddar that I am going to try to age for at least six months , and i am Making a proper traditional Cheddar today , a Four gallon make.

This cheese is my best yet , it's great , and it's finally good to try something with a little age to it other than the mold ripened cheeses , this gives me a lot more confidence now and I want to get more in the cave for the future.

I hate to tell you this, but don't throw away that dry, crumbly, acidic cheese! Vacuum seal it, throw it in the back of your cave and forget about it for another six months or so. You will most likely be very surprised and pleased if you do so. I had one like that before I had a cave or a vacuum sealer. I thought I might try using it as a parmesan substitute, so I put it in a plastic ziplock bag and threw it in the veggie drawer of my spare fridge, which is set to 38 degrees F. About a year later, I re-discovered it. I removed the mold that had formed on it and was very afraid to taste it, but then very happy I had braved it. It was creamy and full flavored cheddar...so I learned my lesson to not rush cheese.

MrsKK, I have a pepper jack that I awakened after 3 1/2 months in the cave, it was not dry, however tasted great but crumbly and stuck to my cheese knife, do you think additional aging would improve the texture for that cheese using your vac and forget method?

It just might. All I know is what has worked on my own cheeses. It's worth trying with at least a portion of it. I personally would vacuum everything you've got left, then test it out in a couple of months. If it is improving, vacuum the rest and let it age another couple of months...or if it is perfect eat the rest of it as is.

Lactic bacteria pretty much run out of food (lactose) within 60 days. When the bacteria die they give off enzymes that contribute significantly to the proteolysis (break down of proteins) during long term aging. That's what you are experiencing, and that is why it doesn't pay to cut cheeses too early. You have to give those enzymes time to do their job.

The waiting is the hardest part. I will open a cheese and taste it, and let several other people taste it, and we will agree that it's too young. So I put it back in the cave and wait. Then I open and we taste it again, and put it back in the cave again. Most of the time, by the time it gets ready, we've already eaten it. My husband says I taste it until there's no more left to age.

I like the description of what Sailor said, it makes sense to me, even though I didn't understand that before. I knew was if it's not good, and it's not spoiled, put it back in the cave and wait.

I have a lot of cheddar of the cave, but I'm not touching it until it's 9 months old, even though it's killing me. I will eat some cheeses at 4 months and they are good. Swiss, Gruyere, and Jack cheeses are all good at 4 months. I know that they are better at 6 months, but I never have any left.

I need to make some Caerphilly because I understand that it ages quickly. I need to balance out my quick aging cheese and my long aging ones so that I can have cheese while I'm waiting.